George Little Once residential construction can be mastered, and once skills and the building business meet in a successful venture, the contractor can either develop properties for rent and resale or the contractor can competitively bid and win work from other people. George Little does both.

Little owns about 30 housing units he manages for himself as rental properties, but Little also keeps nine full- time employees on his payroll while he wins bids to refurbish and renovate and expand homes across central South Carolina.

Little was born in Newport News, Va., where his Columbia- born father was in the U.S. Air Force. His mother, a British citizen born in Sussex, volunteered as a driver in WWII. His mother's father was Douglas Pailthorpe, WWI recipient of the Military Cross, an award close to the British equivalent of the Medal of Honor.

Little's older sister, Gay, was born in the U.K. where their father was a fighter pilot. Gay lives in Hilton Head with her husband Pete Miller, author

of the Hilton Head Diet

and founder of the Hilton Head Health Institute.

The family moved to Columbia when Little was eight and about the time his younger sister Jane was born. Jane is married to Columbia's Mike Copeland.

Little attended Brennan Elementary and then Satchel Ford Road Elementary when it first opened in 1956.

Little attended Crayton Junior High School, and he graduated from A.C. Flora High School. He was a track star at Flora, putting to work what his father taught him. His father held the South Carolina high school long jump record for 25 years. Also at Flora, Little played varsity tennis.

After high school, Little went immediately to college, enrolling at USC as a biology major and as a rushee with Sigma Nu. Little switched his major to business for his degree. In three summers during college, Little drove up and down the Eastern Seaboard for Bekins Van Lines movers, starting at $1.25/hour and finishing at $1.45/hour.

Upon earning his degree in business, Little went to work for South Carolina National Bank, starting out as an assistant vice president and manager of two branches, both Dentsville and Trenholm Plaza. He soon moved up to the Main Street office where he also worked in cash management, which was part of the national account department.

He intermittently attended classes at the Stonier School of Banking in New Jersey for three years. His 100- page thesis for graduation was on warehouse receipt financing.

SCN was the state's largest bank and its first $1 billion bank, then run by CEO and chairman John Lumpkin, Sr.

Little left banking for home construction contracting and development in 1979, naming his firm Little Construction Company. Initially, he bought, renovated and either sold or rented his own properties, but he soon began to successfully bid jobs for homeowners.

Starting out in the construction business around 1980, he was learning to work with 20% interest rates and inflation almost as high. The 1981 Economic Recovery Tax Act accelerated real estate depreciation schedules and triggered something of a building boom, even with the high rates of borrowing. However, at the end of the year, if the margin came in around 20%, it was arguably a break- even year.

Currently, Little can work with 3.25% interest.

Little began his business with his supervisor Lee Heckman, still with Little after 30 years.

Little met his wife, Trudy, soon after he started his business, and they married 27 years ago. Their daughter Amanda, 25 years old, works with Shumaker Homes. Son Darby, 19, is a junior business major at USC. Daughter Alexndra, 16, is a junior at Hammond, where both Darby and Amanda also graduated.

Besides construction, development, and management, Little runs a cabinet supply. His cabinet operation is managed by Kathryn Clough, who sells five different lines of cabinets out of their storefront at 650 South Edisto, also the address of Little Construction.

On the legal front, Little gets called by local attorneys looking for an expert in his field to testify at trial. But that's about all the legal exposure he gets. After 30 years, Little Construction has never been sued.